Today I discovered in Piazza Repubblica there is a Mercedes merchandise shop, just next to the famous Giubbe Rosse restaurant. There is one car inside, but they don’t sell cars. They only sell shirts, jackets, and all kind of clothes. Ok, Mercedes is good at making cars, but so what? They have absolutely no clue on how to make shirts! Why should they do? Read the rest of this entry »

Ever tried to call a taxi on a rainy day in Firenze? Or even on sunny days at peak hour? It’s simply impossibile. You won’t find any on the street and both radio services (4242 and 4390) will tell you that no taxi is available. After wasting some time on the phone, you’ll end up taking a bus or a shower. Can you believe it? OK, Firenze is not a big city, but millions of tourists come to visit it every year! In a normal market economy this offer-demand problem would solve automatically, cause people would be encouraged to become taxi drivers and finally taxis would increase. Unfortunately Italy is not a normal market economy, and so far taxi licences were constrained by law. But they are no more! Yesterday our government finally abolished license constraints, liberalizing the market. Taxi drivers are upset but I don’t care. Go Bersani go!

This has been taken in Riga (Latvia) over the Daugava river. The sun was setting right in the middle of the single pillar of this amazing bridge.